Xenonauts 2 [Early Access] – Round Six (concerns)

This might come off as skitzo, considering I praised Xenonauts 2 in a recent update post about the game. After the patch fixed my issue (the wraith bug), I was allowed to continue playing the campaign. At first, everything was hunky-dory, but after a while, I started to notice some concerns. Xenonauts 2 seems way too easy now, specifically when you hit the next stage of weaponry, both for ground and air combat. I know I’m a bit of a veteran of the game by now, so that plays into it. However, the new weapon tiers, laser, and gauss trivialize the alien encounters. That alone wouldn’t be such a major problem if the aliens wear you down through attrition, yet, they don’t. The campaign has become way too passive, with very few UFOs and other missions between the research unlocking.

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Xenonauts 2 [Early Access] – Round Five

Yup, I’m back to it. You can say that I’m a tad Xenonauts 2 addicted. I dream of one day in the far-off future playing the full game before I wither away of old age and die (and probably be repurposed as food). To be fair, while the release takes its sweet time, we are closing in on that date with the latest release. Version 4.0.0 (prototype edition) was recently published in the experimental branch and I just had to give it a go. However, there is one problem. I didn’t get very far, because one bug kept popping up, annoying the hell out of me. Sometimes the wraiths bug out with a permanent t-pose. You can target and kill them by pressing down CTRL and using the free-fire mode. But any action they do beyond moving, and if they trigger any form of overwatch from you, the game/turn locks up, forcing a shutdown of the game. So, you can see why this is aggravating and is a snag on the general enjoyment.

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Star Trek: Away Team – Vulcan nerve pinch to Victory

When I was younger I loved Star Trek: Away Team, but with age, my taste in games has changed – well, at least certain time-consuming mechanics, like games resting on endless save & reloading. It’s still somewhat of a charming experience playing it now, however, being a Commandos clone there is A LOT of trial and error involved. That is not all, as this title also has a bit of a quirky and archaic control system. It undeniably adds up when half of your attempts fail due to control issues. Yet, as mentioned, it’s still appealing since it’s set in the Star Trek: The Next Generation timeline (best timeline), has nice looking retro graphics, excellent voice acting and presentation, and a pretty good story to boot.

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Subterrain: Mines of Titan – DIY, the game

Subterrain: Mines of Titan is a captivating sci-fi game with plenty of different gameplay mechanics that somehow end up mashing well together, both in gameplay and in a narrative sense. It also makes the game what it is – a tactical combat survival horror RPG in space with light colony management. A mouthful, I know. All this might sound cool on paper, however, it’s not without issues. The heavy emphasis on crafting might break the game for some, even if the combat simulation and general dungeon crawling are excellent. The main reason for this is that you can’t do anything if you don’t learn and make heavy use of the crafting and research mechanics since everything from armor to weapons will be forged by you. There are tons of loot to pick up, but the majority of the stuff will only be there to be dismantled to create better items or to be researched. So, don’t go expecting a casual time spent when you start Subterrain: Mines of Titan!

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2024, the year of X-com-likes

The X-com genre hasn’t exactly been dead, so I can’t say 2024 is the year it will make a glorious comeback, but hot damn, there sure are a lot of games coming out in the genre making it somewhat of an event. For X-com aficionados the world over it’s going to be a very busy year with a lot of turn-based tactical combat and the building of bases. Now, I can’t say for certain that all these titles will come out this year, but the prognoses are looking good for many of the games. I will list the games under three categories. Games that are set for a 2024 release (according to Steam), games with a more unclear release, and then games that are out already. Here we go!

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